Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs

Source: This post has been created based on the article “Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs” published in The Hindu on 7^th October 2023.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice — Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education.

News: The article discusses the importance of higher education in achieving SDG targets and the role of the National Education Policy 2020 in the same. It also highlights the changes required in higher education institutions to accelerate progress towards SDGs.

What are SDGs?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals with 169 targets to be achieved by 2030 by all UN-member countries.

SDGs are crucial to end poverty and other socio-economic and environmental problems. However, slow progress was reported by SDGs Report 2023.

It also highlighted the negative impact of COVID-19, climate crisis, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and a weak global economy on achieving SDGs.

India too has suffered a setback in achieving these goals.

How can NEP 2020 help in achieving SDGs?

India’s actions and policies have indicated commitment to SDGs, particularly SDG4 (which pertains to access to quality education). It is a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is an important policy in this regard.

With priority on higher education, NEP may help to accelerate social mobility, empower people through creativity and critical thinking, and make people employable.

According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, people with a higher education degree are more employable. They can earn an average of 54% more than those who only have completed senior secondary education.

Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary systems of education produce multitalented people who can find innovative solutions to global challenges such as affordable and clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), climate change and global warming (SDG13).

Innovative solutions and start-ups (SDG 9) must be developed in collaboration with private companies.

Introducing Value-Based Education will help citizens become responsible towards self, society, and the planet and help our nation achieve “Life on Land” (SDG15).

Apart from this, University education has a direct bearing on other SDGs like:

1) Protecting people against poverty (SDG1)

2) Preventing hunger (SDG2)

3) Supporting good health and well-being (SDG3)

4) Promoting gender equality (SDG5)

5) Providing decent work, which in turn drives economic growth (SDG 8)

6) Reducing inequalities (SDG10)

What should be done?

To accelerate the progress towards achieving the 2030 agenda, following steps should be undertaken:

Strengthening of “Research-Teaching Nexus” in university education: Knowledge generated from research would benefit students directly.

Education and Orientation of all stakeholders of higher education: All the 56,000+ higher educational institutions and universities should work together.

Active participation of Universities in their local communities: Universities should play a part in the education, innovation, culture, and civic life of their local communities.

Evolving a new culture in Universities: This includes focus on community health, energy-saving measures, efficient resource allocation, waste reduction, and the development of local skills.

Sharing of services, infrastructure, and facilities with other universities or external partners.

Incorporating sustainability and SDGs into institutional strategies, both in daily administration and in teaching and research

Higher education must be directly integrated with socio-economic development which helps in achieving the targets under the UN SDGs.